Farinelli Ann Hallenberg, Les Talens Lyriques and Christophe Rousset

• Riccardo Broschi (1698-1756):
• 1Artasere, Act III, Scene 1: Aria "Son qual nave ch'agitata" (Arbace)07:34
• 2Idaspe, Act II, Scene 11: Aria "Ombra fedele anch' io" (Dario)09:43
• Geminiano Giacomelli (1692-1740):
• 3Adriano in Siria, Act I, Scene 2: Aria "Già presso al termine" (Farnaspe)06:30
• Nicola Porpora (1686-1768):
• 4Semiramide riconosciuta, Act II, Scene 5: Aria "Si pietoso il tuo labro" (Mirteo)07:05
• 5Polifemo, HelN 31, Act I: Alto Giove (Acio)10:18
• Geminiano Giacomelli (1692-1740):
• 6Adriano in Siria, Act II, scene 7: Aria "Passagier che incerto" (Farnaspe)06:32
• Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783):
• 7Cleofide, Act I: Ouverture07:34
• Leonardo Leo (1694-1744):
• 8Catone in Utica, Act I, Scene 7: Aria "Che legge spietata" (Arbace)05:00
• 9Catone in Utica, Act I: Aria "Cervo in bosco" (Arbace)06:13
• Georg Friedrich Händel (1685-1759):
• 10Alcina, HWV 34, Act III: Aria "Sta nell'Ircana" (Ruggiero)05:26
• 11Rinaldo, HWV 7a, Act II: Aria "Lascia ch'io pianga" (Almirena)04:41
• Nicola Porpora (1686-1768):
• 12Semiramide riconosciuta, Act III, Scene 4: Aria "In braccio a mille furie" (Mirteo)02:57
• Total Runtime01:19:33

Info for Farinelli

With more than one million copies sold, the original soundtrack of Gérard Corbiau’s film Farinelli established the international reputation of Les Talens Lyriques. In 1994, in order to reinvent the voice of Carlo Broschi aka Farinelli (1705-1782), a computer was used to mix the timbres of Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor, and Ewa Mallas-Godlewska, soprano. No less would have been sufficient to incarnate the octaves and the phenomenal power of this singer, history’s first rock star.

Now Ann Hallenberg, a flavorful and ambiguous mezzo, has been chosen by Christophe Rousset to portray Farinelli. “There were two periods in Farinelli’s career. The first was virtuosic, flamboyant, during which he was financially successful and gave many performances. The second one was more melancholic, introverted, and sensitive. Ann is able to do justice to both of these.”

Following their sell-out Farinelli concerts, Christophe Rousset and the Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenburg release their much-anticipated recording: Farinelli – A Portrait, out now on Aparté. The recording, made from a live radio broadcast in Norway, includes works by composers Broschi, J.C Bach, Giacomelli, Porpora, Hasse and Leo that were sung by the world’s most famous 18th century castrato. The success of the soundtrack to the film Farinelli (1994), which sold more than a million discs worldwide, firmly established Les Talens Lyriques on the international Baroque scene two decades ago. To mark the ensemble’s 25th anniversary, an exclusive sampler of 25 tracks accompanies the Farinelli disc, with music from Les Talens Lyriques’ rich collection of recordings. The Farinelli disc coincides with the release of the Handelian diptych Alcina/Tamerlano by Les Talens Lyriques and Rousset with Outhere. Rousset and Hallenberg have formed a fierce partnership over the past years through their Farinelli collaboration, presenting these long-forgotten gems of the Italian operatic repertoire across Europe to critical acclaim and packed concert halls. Today only few singers can master the pyrotechnics, vocal range and breath control that the castrati uniquely possessed in the past.

Hallenberg, who was awarded with a 2016 International Opera Award, also features on the Blu-ray of the Handel double bill production by Pierre Audi of Alcina and Tamerlano, performed by Les Talens Lyriques and conducted by Christophe Rousset. Originally staged by Audi in the beautiful baroque Drottingholms Slottsteater in Stockholm in 2000, this production was revived and filmed in 2015 at La Monnaie, featuring Sandrine Piau in her role debut as Alcina and Christophe Dumoux as Tamerlano.

Ann Hallenberg, mezzo-soprano
Les Talens Lyriques
Christophe Rousset, direction

Please Note: We offer this album in its native sampling rate of 44.1 kHz, 24-bit. The provided 88.2 kHz version was up-sampled and offers no audible value!

Ann Hallenberg
The Swedish mezzo-soprano Ann Hallenberg regularly appears in opera houses and festivals such as Teatro alla Scala Milan, Teatro la Fenice Venice, Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa, Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra National Paris, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg, Opéra de Lille, Opéra de Bordeaux, Opéra de Dijon, Opéra de Monaco, Théâtre de La Monnaie Brussels, Netherlands Opera Amsterdam, Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Bayerische Staatsoper München, Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Norwegian National Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh Festival and the Drottningholm Festival in Stockholm. She is highly sought after as a concert singer and she frequently appears in concert halls throughout Europe and North America.

Ann Hallenberg regularly works with conductors such as Giovanni Antonini, Fabio Biondi, Ivor Bolton, William Christie, Alan Curtis, Ottavio Dantone, Alessandro De Marchi, Marcello Di Lisa, Laurence Equilbey, Diego Fasolis, Adam Fischer, Patrick Fournillier, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Jane Glover, Pablo González, Emmanuelle Haïm, Daniel Harding, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Philippe Herreweghe, Michael Hofstetter, Paavo Järvi, Bernard Labadie, Louis Langrée, Paul McCreesh, Nicholas McGegan, Riccardo Minasi, Marc Minkowski, Christopher Moulds, Riccardo Muti, Kent Nagano, Sir Roger Norrington, Renato Palumbo, Sir Antonio Pappano, Evelino Pidò, Jérémie Rhorer, Christophe Rousset, Federico Maria Sardelli, Andreas Spering, Jean-Christophe Spinosi, David Stern, Lothar Zagrosek and Alberto Zedda.

Her repertoire includes a large number of leading roles in operas by Rossini, Mozart, Gluck, Handel, Vivaldi, Monteverdi, Purcell, Bizet and Massenet. Equally at home on the concert platform she has built an unusually vast concert repertoire that spans music from the early 17th Century works of Monteverdi and Cavalli, via Mozart, Beethoven, Berlioz, Mahler, Martin and Chausson up to contemporary works of Franz Waxman and Daniel Börtz.

Engagements in 2013 included Mozart's Davide Penitente in Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Anna in Haydn's Il ritorno di Tobia at the Salzburg Festival, Rossini's Stabat Mater at Teatro Real Madrid, the title role in Handel's Agrippina at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris and Auditorio Nacional de Música Madrid, Dejanira in Hercules in Moscow, Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody at with Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater with Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bach's St Matthew Passion in Rome with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bach's Mass in B minor with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Pergolesi's Stabat Mater as well as Traetta's Stabat Mater at Festival Ambronay with Les Talens Lyriques, Bach's Mass in B minor as well as Magnificat in Stockholm with the Swedish Radio Orchestra, Teseo in Handel's Arianna in Creta at Theater an der Wien, Ferrandini's Il Pianto di Maria at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as in Krakow, Tirinto in Handel's Imeneo in Siena, Servilia in Vivaldi's Tito Manlio at Festival Ambronay with Concerto de' Cavalieri, and a concert with arias by Handel, Porpora and Orlandini in Antwerp with Il Pomo d’Oro.

2014 included Farnaspe in Veracini's Adriano in Siria in Konzerthaus Wien, Emilia in Vivaldi's Catone in Utica at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Orphée in Gluck's Orphée et Euridice in Lisbon, Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri in the Gewandhaus Leipzig, Chausson's Le poème de l’amour et de la mer at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées Paris, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and Brahms' Vier ernste Gesänge in Philharmonie Berlin, Berlioz' Les nuits d'été in Oviedo, Zaragoza and Budapest with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique as well as in Skopje with Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with Rotterdam Symphony Orchestra, Servilia in Vivaldi's Tito Manlio in Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and Centro Cultural in Lisbon, Mozart's Mass in C minor at the Salzburg Festival, Mahler's Kindertotenlieder in Paris, Poitiers and Gent with Orchestre des Champs Elysées, Vivaldi's Gloria in Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Rome, arias by Porpora, Broschi, Giacomelli and Leo in Wigmore Hall in London, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with Danish National Chamber Orchestra, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Mozart's Requiem with Barcelona Symphony Orchestra as well as with Orchestra of Teatro Real Madrid and with Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, arias by Handel with Zurich Chamber Orchestra, arias by Mozart, Haydn and Gluck with Drottningholm Festival Orchestra, and arias by Handel, Telemann and Porpora at the Ernen Festival.

2015 has started with Irene in Handel's Tamerlano at Théâtre de La Monnaie Brussels and concerts with arias by Bizet, Saint-Saëns and Mozart in Antwerp.

Riccardo Minasi
was born in Rome in 1978. He has performed both as soloist as well as concertmaster with Le Concert des Nations of Jordi Savall, Accademia Bizantina, Concerto Italiano, Il Giardino Armonico, Al Ayre Español, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di S.Cecilia and Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid. He has also worked with the Concerto Vocale of René Jacobs, Ensemble 415, Luca Pianca, Viktoria Mullova, Albrecht Mayer, Christophe Coin and Reinhard Goebel. As a conductor he directed the Orchestra and Choir of the Opéra National de Lyon, Kammerakademie of Potsdam, Zürich Kammerorchester, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, L'Arpa Festante, Recreation-Grosses Orchester of Graz, Attersee-Akademie Orchestra, ensemble Resonanz, European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO), Il Complesso Barocco, Holland Baroque Society and the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra, of which he was the associate conductor between 2008 and 2011 . Invited by Kent Nagano he performed as concertmaster at the Belcanto Festival in Knowlton and collaborated as historical advisor for the Montrèal Symphony Orchestra in Canada. In 2010 he worked as assistant conductor, concertmaster, curator and editor of the critical edition of the opera Norma by Vincenzo Bellini with Cecilia Bartoli and Thomas Hengelbrock in Dortmund. In collaboration with Maurizio Biondi he will publish the critical edition of Norma for Baerenreiter in 2014. Since its foundation in 2012 he is the conductor of the ensemble Il Pomo d’Oro, with whom he has a full calendar of performances and has already realized many highly awarded recordings ranging from intrumental to operatic repertoire. From 2004 to 2010 he was professor of chamber music at the Conservatorio V. Bellini of Palermo, he has also given violin and orchestra master-classes, and lectures in historical practice at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge (USA), at the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, the Chinese Culture University of Taipei (Taiwan), the Conservatory of Sydney (Australia), the Kùks Residence in the Czech Republic, at the Zürich Opera House, at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole and as the italian representative of the jury in 2009, at the auditions for the European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO). His recording of Biber’s Rosenkranz Sonaten published by Arts was a finalist at the Midem Classical Award in Cannes as album of the year in 2009. For the next season he will conduct Il Matrimonio segreto at the Zürich Opernhaus, Carmen at the Opéra National de Lyon, Rinaldo at the Theater an der Wien and on tour with Il Pomo d’Oro for Catone in Utica by Vinci, Siroe by Hasse, Tamerlano, Serse and Partenope by Händel.

Booklet for Farinelli